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NEW YORK/ MANAGUA, March 1- Venezuela, once a proud exporter of premium coffee, has been reduced to swapping crude oil for growing volumes of Nicaraguan coffee beans to make sure worsening economic turmoil does not prevent people from getting their caffeine fix. Falling coffee production and near-record demand has forced it to buy more higher-priced foreign...

CARACAS, Feb 28- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had captured American citizens involved in "espionage activities," and said U.S. citizens in the future will have to seek visas to come to the OPEC nation. Speaking during a rally, he said his government will prohibit some U.S. officials from entering Venezuela in retaliation for...

CARACAS, Venezuela— The Venezuela newspaper started by a former guerrilla as a forum to criticize the socialist revolution started by the late President Hugo Chavez is ending its daily print edition amid a shortage of newsprint and what it says is a pattern of government harassment. Starting Sunday, Caracas- based Tal Cual will be available at newsstands only...

CARACAS, Feb 20- Venezuelans queued up on Friday to purchase U.S. dollars in cash at exchange houses for the first time in 12 years, though prospective buyers complained the new system was tedious and few if any had yet to emerge with greenbacks in hand. A few dozen people queued up inside an Italcambio exchange house in central Caracas on Friday in the hopes of...

Many said they wanted to protect their savings from Venezuela's 68 percent inflation, or to travel abroad. That compares with rates of 6.3 or 12 bolivars per dollar Venezuela uses for priority imports, and 190 bolivars on the black market. Luis Silva, 78, joined the line outside the exchange house at 8 a.m. The former importer hopes to use the foreign currency to...

Ford Motor Co, wrote off its entire investment in Venezuela last month when it took an $800 million pre-tax write down, the company said in response to questions from Reuters. That means no matter how much worse things get in Venezuela it shouldn't have to take further impairment charges. The slow torture of operating in Venezuela led PepsiCo to report last week a...

CARACAS, Feb 13- Venezuelans puzzled over the impact of a complicated currency devaluation and fretted that dire product shortages in the OPEC nation's recession-hit economy would not go away. President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government this week launched a 70 percent devaluation via a new "free floating" currency system known as Simadi, the third of...

CARACAS/ SAN CRISTOBAL, Feb 12- Venezuelan security forces faced off with stone-wielding protesters on Thursday as supporters of President Nicolas Maduro also rallied on the anniversary of last year's fatal unrest. The flare-ups, in the volatile western city of San Cristobal and the capital Caracas, recalled four months of protests and violence in 2014...

Though some portfolio managers including Pimco and Van Eck Global have pared their exposure in recent months, Venezuela remains among the largest positions for U.S. funds that focus on emerging market debt. The $4.6 billion TCW Emerging Markets Income Fund also has kept an overweight position, with 5 percent of assets invested in Venezuela.

CARACAS, Feb 10- Venezuela launched a "free" foreign exchange platform on Tuesday that will likely devalue the bolivar in efforts to bolster state coffers amid tumbling oil revenue, although it risks causing a spike in already soaring inflation. The change could lead to billions of dollars in write-downs by foreign corporations with exposure to Venezuela...

CARACAS, Feb 3- Venezuela said on Tuesday it has temporarily taken over 35 stores belonging to the "Dia a Dia" supermarket chain on charges it squirreled away food to stoke public exasperation over widespread shortages. Venezuela's head of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, confirmed on Tuesday that the chain was Dia a Dia, which chiefly caters to the...

Feb 2- At least 40 major U.S. companies have substantial exposure to Venezuela's deepening economic crisis, and could collectively be forced to take billions of dollars of write downs, a Reuters analysis shows. The companies, all members of the S&P 500, and including some of the biggest names in Corporate America such as autos giant General Motors and drug maker...